Mukhlis Tanveer Jan writer.

English Literature Tanveer.

Welcome to class!

In today’s class, we will be talking about the general characteristics of prose writing. Enjoy the class!

General Characteristics of Prose Writing

Prose Writing classnotes.ng

Prose writing possesses a lot of attributes or features. Below are some of the general characteristics of prose writing.

Subject Matter:

This is the main idea of the story. It is not what the work contains, but what the work refers to. The subject matter in prose fiction is a kind of summary of what is presented in the work. It is what the story is all about. It is the subject of discussion in the work which is different from the theme. The theme refers to the ideas which are stated abstractly but the abstract ideas are dramatized through the subject matter. The subject matter is how the idea is explicated to form the story.

Characters and Characterization:

This is a person depicted in a narrative or drama. A character can be any person, a figure, an inanimate object, or animal. There are different types of characters, and each serves its unique function in a story or a piece of literature.

Types of characters

There are many types of characters which include:

Confidante:

A confidante is someone in whom the main character confides. He reveals the central character’s thoughts, intentions, and personality traits. However, a confidante need not necessarily be a person. An animal can also be a confidante.

Dynamic Character:

A dynamic character changes during the course of a novel or a story. This change in character or his/her outlook is permanent. That is why sometimes a dynamic character is also called a “developing character.”

Static Character:

A static character remains the same throughout the whole story. Even the events in a story or novel do not change the character’s outlook, perceptions, habits, personality, or motivations.

Antagonist:

An antagonist is a bad guy or an opponent of the protagonist or the main character. The action in the story arises from a conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist. The antagonist can be a person, an inanimate object, an animal, or nature itself.

Protagonist:

Every story has a protagonist, the main character, who creates the action of the plot and engages readers, arousing their empathy and interest. The protagonist is often a hero or heroine of the story, as the whole plot moves around him or her.

Round Character:

The round characters are well-developed and complex figures in a story. They are more realistic and demonstrate more depth in their personalities. They can make surprising or puzzling decisions, and attract readers’ attention. There are many factors that may affect them, and round characters react to such factors realistically.

Flat Character:

A flat character does not change during a story. Also, he or she usually only reveals one or two personality traits.

Stock Character:

A stock character is a flat character that is instantly recognizable by readers. Like a flat character, the stock character does not undergo any development throughout the story.

Characterization is the concept of creating characters for a narrative. It is a literary element and may be employed in dramatic works of art or everyday conversation. Characters may be presented by means of description, through their actions, speech, or thoughts.

Conflict:

Conflict in literature is defined as any struggle between opposing forces. Usually, the main character struggles against some other force. This type of conflict is what drives each and every story. Without it, the story would have no point or purpose. In another view, conflict is a literary element that involves a struggle between two opposing forces, usually a protagonist and an antagonist.

Plot:

The plot is the storyline of a text. An author puts together a series of events to create a story. The sequence of that series of events is the plot. A story does not exist without a plot. A plot includes every event that occurs throughout a text. The plot should be developed in such a way to interest the readers and to keep them guessing at the next points. A good plot is one that has well-developed characters who are engaging in several conflicts. There is a traditional plot structure that many texts follow. Below is a common plotline example:

Exposition:

The exposition is the introduction to the story. Characters and setting are introduced.

Rising Action:

The rising action presents a central conflict within a character or between one or more character. The conflict builds during the rising action.

Climax:

The climax occurs when the conflict is at its peak and when there seems to be no viable solution to the conflict.

Falling Action:

The falling action occurs after the climax when the reader is still unsure if the protagonist will be able to resolve the conflict.

Denouement:

The denouement (also called the resolution) is the conclusion to the plot. Typically, the conflict is resolved at this point.

Types of plot

There are two types of plots in literature. They are

Simple plot

Complex plot.

A simple plot will have one storyline that usually moves in a straightforward manner toward resolution. In a simple plot, there are usually not too many obstacles to overcome. There may be some big and fearsome ones but the need to surmount them is unambiguous.

A complex plot will have several storylines that intermingle and go back and forth in time, not moving in a straight line toward resolution. There are probably many obstacles to overcome and it may not be clear that solving them is an unmitigated good. The ending may be ambiguous.

Theme:

This is seen as representing for the reader what a story amounts to or the sum-total of the idea that the novel gives about life. It is something deeper than subject matter; indeed it is the vision of the novel and the profound questions raised about life. Moreover, it is a conceptual distillation of the story and is often listed as one of the fundamental elements of fiction. It is also the central idea or insight serving as a unifying element, creating cohesion and is an answer to the question.

Setting:

The setting is an environment or surrounding in which an event or story takes place either nonfiction or fiction. It is the time and place (or when and where) of the story. The setting is an essential component of literature, and it’s one of the first things a writer considers when he or she invents a story. It not only influences a story’s characters and events but also enhances the reader’s ability to imagine those characters and events. In other words, setting the scene lets the reader know what type of literary world he or she is entering so that he or she can get “grounded” and experience it more fully.

There are two types of setting namely fictional and non-fiction setting. Settings can be either imagined or real. It’s worth noting that the categories of “imaginary” and “real” don’t necessarily correspond to fictional and non-fictional works, respectively—a fictional story can be set in a real location, such as Nigeria, Ghana, or Uganda.

Narrative Techniques/Point of View:

These are the methods and devices writers use to tell stories, whether in fiction or non-fiction. There are several types of narrative techniques or point of view. They include the following:

First-Person Narrator: First-person narratives cross all genres of literature and are characterized by the writer or a story’s character using his own voice to tell the tale. With this technique, the narrator employs the first person by referring to himself as “I,” and is either actively or passively involved in relating the events of the story. The narrator may or may not be privy to whatever action is about to unfold, and he need not be the primary character.

The first-person narrative technique is especially popular in writing personal diaries or memoirs, dramatic monologues, mystery novels and even “interior monologues,” in which a character essentially has a discussion with herself.

Third Person/ Eye of God/Omniscient Narrator: With this technique, the author chooses to have the story told by an outside narrator who knows all – hence the term “omniscient.” Third-person narrators refer to characters by name or use common pronouns such as she, he and they. Authors may use third-person narrators to speak to readers directly, although they don’t necessarily reveal all they know of the past, present and future.

Mixed:

This technique is a narrative technique whereby the author of a literary work employs more than one narrative technique in his work. It could be that he uses any of the third person and multiple points of view simultaneously in his work or other narrative techniques as the case may be.

Multiple:

This is a narrative technique whereby the story is told from various perspectives of the characters in the literary work. This is seen to be used by the popular gender studies writer, Akachi Ezeigbo, in one of her seminal works titled The Last of the Strong Ones.

Tone:

This is the way a writer expresses his attitude through his writing. In written composition, it is an attitude of a writer toward a subject or an audience. The tone is generally conveyed through the choice of words or the viewpoint of a writer on a particular subject. The manner in which a writer approaches the theme and subject is the tone.

The tone can be formal, informal, serious, comic, sarcastic, sad, or cheerful, or it may be any other existing attitude. Tone, in a piece of literature, decides how the readers read a literary piece, and how they should feel while they are reading it. It stimulates the readers to read a piece of literature as a serious, comical, spectacular, or distressing manner.

In addition, tone lends shape and life to a piece of literature because it creates a mood. Moreover, tone bestows voice to characters and throws light on the personalities and dispositions of characters that readers understand better.

Mood:

In literature, the mood is a literary element that evokes certain feelings or vibes in readers through words and descriptions, as well as through a work’s setting, tone, theme, and diction. Usually, the mood is referred to as the atmosphere of a literary piece, as it creates an emotional setting that surrounds the readers.

In our next class, we will be talking about the Forms of Literature. We hope you enjoyed the class.

Welcome to class!

In today’s class, we will be talking about the forms of literature. Enjoy the class!

Forms of Literature

Forms of Literature classnotes.ng

There are various forms of literature. Below are some of the forms of literature that we have:

Comedy:

This is a type of drama which is characterized by its humorous or satirical tone and depicts amusing people or incidents, in which the characters ultimately triumph over adversity. There are various types of comedy such as parody, satire, comedy of manners, romantic comedy, farce, burlesque, among others. An example of a comedy is Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer.

Tragedy:

This is a type of drama that treats a serious subject about human suffering or a terrible event in a dignified style in the life of a hero, whose “tragic flaw or hamartia” leads to his/her downfall and has an unhappy ending. It also invokes “pleasure or catharsis” in its audience. An example of this is William Shakespeare’s tragedies such as Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, King Lear and so on.

Tragi-comedy:

This type of drama combines the elements of or is a mixture of both the type of drama known as the comedy and tragedy. It is also seen to be described as either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten the overall mood or a serious play with a happy ending. An example of this is William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.

Farce:

A farce is a light-hearted comedy that centres around a ridiculous plot that usually involves exaggerated and improbable events. Farces usually do not have much character development, but instead rely on absurdity, physical humour, and skilful exploitation of a situation. Farce examples also often occur in just one place where all the events occur. This can add to the sense of a pressure cooker where all of the elements are combined to create something truly ridiculous.

The genre of farce developed in 15th-century Europe as a way to make serious things, such as religious texts, foolish. These early farce examples included features such as acrobatics and clowning, that are still present in the physical humour of contemporary farces, as well as reversal and perversion of social rules and norms. Farce, however, does not have the biting social commentary of satire or necessarily have a greater meaning. Instead, entertainment is its primary goal.

Burlesque:

Burlesque literature is a form of satire. It is often and perhaps best described as “an incongruous imitation.” The purpose of burlesque literature is to imitate the manner or the subject matter of a “serious” literary genre, author, or work through a comic inversion. Imitations of manner might include the form or the style, whereas imitation of the matter is meant to satirize the subject being explored in a particular work or genre.

While a burlesque piece may aim to poke fun at a particular work, genre, or subject, it is most often the case that burlesque will be a satire of all of these elements. What is important to consider this mode of literature is that the point of the burlesque is to create an incongruity, a ridiculous disparity, between the manner of the work and the matter of it.

While “travesty,” “parody,” and “burlesque” are terms that are often used interchangeably, it is perhaps better to consider travesty and parody as types of burlesque, with burlesque being the generic term for the larger model. That being said, it is also important to note that a burlesque piece may employ several techniques which fall into the larger category; it is not necessarily the case that all burlesque literature will share all of the same features.

There are two primary types of burlesque, the “High Burlesque” and the “Low Burlesque.” High Burlesque occurs when the form and style of the piece are dignified and “high,” or “serious” while the subject matter is trivial or “low.” The types of high burlesque include the “mock-epic” or “mock-heroic” poem, as well as the parody. Low Burlesque occurs when the style and manner of work are low or undignified but, in contrast, the subject matter is distinguished or high in status. The types of low burlesque include the Travesty and the Hudibrastic poem.

Comedy of Manners:

A Comedy of Manners is a play concerned with satirising society’s manners. A manner is a method in which everyday duties are performed, conditions of society, or a way of speaking. It implies a polite and well-bred behaviour.

A Comedy of Manners usually employs an equal amount of both satire and farce resulting in a hilarious send-up of a particular social group. Most plays of the genre were carefully constructed to satirise the very people watching them. This was usually the middle to upper classes in society, who were normally the only people wealthy enough to afford to go to the theatre to see a comedy of manners in the first place. The playwrights knew this in advance and fully intended to create characters that were sending up the daily customs of those in the audience watching the play. The satire tended to focus on their materialistic nature, never-ending desire to gossip and hypocritical existence.

Romantic Comedy:

A romantic comedy is a type of play which consists of a love affair between the characters mainly protagonist, difficulties that arise due to the affairs, the struggle of the protagonist or other major characters to overcome these difficulties and the ending that is generally happy to everyone. Romantic comedies are literary works that treat love, courtship, and marriage comically. Comic in this context refers more to the mood of the literary work that deals with a romantic relationship, almost always between a young woman and a young man. The comedy derives from their clumsy efforts to get together – usually they like each other, but each is unsure that the other likes them back, and their behaviour is nervous and awkward, resulting in situational comedy.

Satire:

This is a genre of writing that criticizes something, such as a person, behaviour, belief, government, or society. Satire often employs irony, humour, and hyperbole to make its point. Satire is a technique employed by writers to expose and criticize foolishness and corruption of an individual or a society, by using humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule. It intends to improve humanity by criticizing its follies and foibles. A writer in a satire uses fictional characters, which stand for real people, to expose and condemn their corruption.

A writer may point a satire toward a person, a country, or even the entire world. Usually, a satire is a comical piece of writing which makes fun of an individual or a society, to expose its stupidity and shortcomings. Also, he hopes that those he criticizes will improve their characters by overcoming their weaknesses.

Existential Literature:

This is a movement in philosophy and literature that emphasizes individual existence, freedom and choice. … It is based on the view that humans define their meaning in life, and try to make rational decisions despite existing in an irrational universe. Existentialism became popular in the years following World War II, thanks to Jean-Paul Sartre, who read Martin Heidegger while in a POW camp, and strongly influenced many disciplines besides philosophy, including theology, drama, art, literature, and psychology. A typical example of this type of literature is Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot.

In our next class, we will be talking about Literary Terms. We hope you enjoyed the class.

Welcome to class!

In today’s class, we will be talking about literary terms. Enjoy the class!

Literary Terms I

Literary Terms classnotes.ng

Meaning of literary terms

Literary terms are techniques that writers use to create a special and pointed effect in their writing, to convey information, or to help readers understand their writing on a deeper level.

Often, literary terms are used in writing for emphasis or clarity. Authors will also use literary terms to get readers to connect more strongly with either a story as a whole or specific characters or themes.

So why is it important to know different literary terms? Aside from helping you get good grades on your literary analysis, there are several benefits to knowing the techniques authors commonly use.

Being able to identify when different literary techniques are being used helps you understand the motivation behind the author’s choices. For example, being able to identify symbols in a story can help you figure out why the author might have chosen to insert these focal points and what these might suggest regarding his/her attitude toward certain characters, plot points, and events.

Besides, being able to identify literary terms can make a written work’s overall meaning or purpose clearer to you. For instance, let’s say you’re planning to read (or re-read) The Lion and the Jewel by Wole Soyinka. By knowing that this particular book is a satire with references made to the characterization of Lakunle and Baroka, who both represent modernity and traditional ways of life, as well as being portrayed as an idealist and a realist respectively, in their pursuit of the jewel, Sidi. It will be clearer to you why Soyinka uses certain language to describe certain characters and why certain events happen the way they do.

Finally, literary terms are important to know because they make texts more interesting and more fun to read. If you were to read a novel without knowing any literary devices, chances are you wouldn’t be able to detect many of the layers of meaning interwoven into the story via different techniques.

Now that we’ve gone over why you should spend some time understanding the importance of knowing literary terms let us take a look at some of the most important literary terms to know.

The following are some of the literary terms/devices/techniques in literature:

Diction (Language): This is a term that describes the use of words in oral discourse. It is a simple list of words that make up the vocabulary, the accurate, canny use of these words in discourse makes up good diction.

Allusion: Allusion is when an author makes an indirect reference to a figure, place, event, or idea originating from outside the text. Many allusions refer to previous works of literature or art.

Anaphora: This is when a word or phrase is repeated at the beginning of multiple sentences throughout a piece of writing. It’s used to emphasize the repeated phrase and evoke strong feelings in the audience.

Asyndeton: This is when the writer leaves out conjunctions (such as “and,” “or,” “but,” and “for”) in a group of words or phrases so that the meaning of the phrase or sentence is emphasized. It is often used for speeches since sentences containing asyndeton can have a powerful, memorable rhythm.

Epigraph: An epigraph is when an author inserts a famous quotation, poem, song, or other short passage or text at the beginning of a larger text (e.g., a book, chapter, etc.). An epigraph is typically written by a different writer (with credit given) and used as a way to introduce overarching themes or messages in the work.

Flashback: A flashback is an interruption in a narrative that depicts events that have already occurred, either before the present time or before the time at which the narration takes place. This device is often used to give the reader more background information and details about specific characters.

Foreshadowing: Foreshadowing is when an author indirectly hints at – through things such as dialogue, description, or characters’ actions – what’s to come later on in the story. This device is often used to introduce tension to a narrative.

Malapropism: Malapropism happens when an incorrect word is used in place of a word that has a similar sound. This misuse of the word typically results in a statement that is both nonsensical and humorous; as a result, this device is commonly used in comedic writing.

Soliloquy: A type of monologue that’s often used in dramas, a soliloquy is when a character speaks aloud to himself (and to the audience), thereby revealing his inner thoughts and feelings.

Symbolism: Symbolism refers to the use of an object, figure, event, situation, or other ideas in a written work to represent something else – typically a broader message or deeper meaning that differs from its literal meaning. The things used for symbolism are called “symbols,” and they’ll often appear multiple times throughout a text, sometimes changing in meaning as the plot progresses.

Tone: While the mood is what the audience is supposed to feel, the tone is the writer or narrator’s attitude towards a subject. A good writer will always want the audience to feel the mood they’re trying to evoke, but the audience may not always agree with the narrator’s tone, especially if the narrator is an unsympathetic character or has viewpoints that differ from those of the reader.

In our next class, we will be talking more about Literary Terms. We hope you enjoyed the class.

Welcome to class!

In today’s class, we will be talking more about literary terms. Enjoy the class!

Literary Terms II

Literary Terms classnotes.ng

In the previous class, literary terms were discussed at length. Today, more literary terms will be looked at in-depth to achieve an understanding of the phenomenon in view. Below are more literary terms in literature:

Free Verse: This is poetry that is based on the irregular rhythmic cadence of the recurrence, with variations of phrases, images, and syntactical patter s rather than the conventional use of a meter. Rhyme may or may not be present in free verse, but when it is, it is used with great freedom.

Innuendo: This is an insinuation or indirect suggestion often with harmful or sinister connotation.

Interior Monologue: This is one of the techniques by which the stream of consciousness of a character in a novel or a short story is presented. It records the internal, emotional experience of the character on any level or combinations of several levels of consciousness, reaching down to the non verbalize level where images must be used to represent non-verbalized sensations or emotions.

Motif: This is the simple element which serves as a basis for expanded narrative; or strictly, a conventional situation, device, interest, or incident, employed in Folklore, Fiction, or Drama.

Poetic Justice: This is a term used to explain the judgement which rewards virtue and punishes vice among characters of a narrative.

Tragic Flaw: This is the flaw, error, defect or weakness in the tragic hero, which leads to the hero’s downfall.

Trilogy: This refers to a literary composition more usually a novel or a play, written in three parts, each of which is in itself a complete unit. The trilogy is usually written against a large background which may be historical, philosophical or social in its interests.

Comic Relief: This is a humorous scene in tragic drama or fiction that has the effect of temporarily altering the mood of the play and thereby relieving tension.

Conceit: A term for a particularly fanciful metaphor. It is a term that carried the general notion of a clever, witty expression. It was used by metaphysical poets of the 17th century such as John Donne, Richard Crashaw, Andrew Marvell, Henry Vaughan, Abraham Cowley, George Hebert, among others.

Hero/Heroine: The major figure in a drama or narrative.

Hubris: A Greek word for excessive pride, and arrogance that invites the retribution of the gods. The term is frequently employed about Greek tragedies. It is related to, but distinct from another term, “Hamartia”.

Monologue: A long speech by one speaker. If the speaker is alone such a speech is called a Soliloquy. If the speaker addresses someone absent or an abstract idea, it is an Apostrophe. If the speech is addressed to someone present, it is a Dramatic Monologue. An Interior Monologue represents a character’s fleeting thoughts and impressions, or inner speech.

Parallelism: The principle of representing equal ideas in the same grammatical form, for example, “government of the people, by the people, and for the people”. Parallelism produces a sense of balance and order and is frequently employed as a feature of the periodic sentence.

Quatrain: A four-line stanza of verse, generally exhibiting a rhyme scheme. The traditional ballad was usually composed in quatrains, in which the second and fourth lines rhyme.

Rhyme: The duplication of sounds, usually at the end of a line of the verse.

Stanza: In the verse, the basic division of a poem, the equivalent of a paragraph in prose. Stanzas are designated according to the number of lines they contain: Couplet (2 lines); Tercet (3 lines); Quatrain ( 4 lines); Quintain ( 5 lines); Sestet ( 6 lines); Septet ( 7 lines); Octet ( 8 lines); and Nonet (9 lines).

Stereotype: A highly generalised idea, situation, or character, derived from an oversimplified treatment in a work. More commonly, it refers to the reliance on generalisations about racial, national, or s****l groups in the depiction of certain characters.

Sub-plot: A subordinate sequence of event in a play or novel. A given sub-plot may be designed to mirror, intensify, or enhance the main plot.

In our next class, we will be talking about

Welcome to class!

In today’s class, we will be talking about drama. Enjoy the class!

Drama

Drama classnotes.ng

A brief overview of drama

This literary genre is often also referred to as a play and is performed in front of an audience. It is a literary work meant to be performed on stage by casts/actors or actresses. Dramas are written through dialogue and include stage directions for the actors to follow. The characteristics of drama are: It is written in acts and scenes; it is acted or performed on stage by actors and actresses; It has a prologue and an epilogue; The dialogue between characters is made up of sentences; It makes use of dialogu.

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde would be considered a drama because it is written through dialogue in the form of a script that includes stage directions to aid the actors in the performance of the play.

Types of drama

In literature, there are three forms/kinds of drama and they include the following:

Comedy

Tragedy and

Tragi-comedy

Comedy:

Tragedy:

In the ancient Greek world, comedy was considered the opposite of tragedy, and these were the two main genres in Greek literature. Tragedies were stories of human failure – the hero was always killed or destroyed in the end, usually through his human flaws and psychological weaknesses. The tragedy is a type of drama that treats a serious subject about human suffering or a terrible event in a dignified style in the life of a hero, whose “tragic flaw or hamartia” leads to his/her downfall and has an unhappy ending. It also invokes “pleasure or catharsis” in its audience. An example of this is William Shakespeare’s tragedies such as Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, King Lear and so on.

We hope you enjoyed the class.

Should you have any further question, feel free to ask in the comment section below and trust us to respond as soon as possible.

Should you have any further question, feel free to ask in the comment section below and trust us to respond soon as possible